Ghugni - a very popular bengali street food
April 23, 2020
I have always been a die-hard lover of street food. Name any, and I will be drooling just thinking about it. When I started staying away from my home town, I always ensured to make a list of food items I would like to eat when I return home for a week long vacation. The list would comprise of various items my Mom prepares, a lot of street food and this particular one which I love from my dad.
The trick to making a good ghugni is not to overboil the peas. The peas should be just cooked and they should stay as separate individual items when you finally consume it. Overboil them and you will end up with a lentil like consistency and the chunkiness of the whole dish will be lost.
This is quite a wholesome dish and hence, I like to keep the gravy light. It balances out the richness of the dish because of generous amount of garam masala in it. Top it with some ghee at the end, just like my father does, and you will end up savoring this dish till eternity.
Ghugni can be consumed in a variety of ways, like a chaat accompaniment or with fluffy pooris (or, luchi as we call it). Soft luchis and a bowl full of ghugni is the best way I like to start my Sunday morning. Not only does it bring out the typical Bengali foodie out of me, it also makes up for the light breakfast I have for the other days of the week 🙂 .
Ghugni
Ingredients
- 1 cup white peas (soaked overnight)
- 1 tbsp mustard oil
- 1 medium potato
- 1 tsp turmeric powder
- 3 quantity bayleaf
- 3 quantity dried red chillies
- 1 inch cinnamon stick
- 3 quantity cardamom
- 1 large onion
- 10 cloves garlic
- 1 tbsp grated ginger
- 6 quantity green chillies
- 1 tbsp cumin powder
- 1 tbsp coriander powder
- 1 tsp garam masala
- 1 quantity tomato
- Salt as required
- 1 tbsp ghee
Instructions
- Boil the overnight soaked peas until 3 whistles in a pressure cooker or until cooked.
- Make small cubes out of the potato and fry it in a frying pan with some salt and turmeric powder. Once cooked, keep it aside.
- Make a paste out of the ginger, garlic, green chillies, cumin powder, coriander powder, turmeric powder and garam masala powder. Keep it aside.
- In the same pan, temper the oil with bay leaves, dried red chillies, cardamom and cinnamon.
- Finely chop the onion and add it to the pan. Cook till the onions turn brown.
- Next, add the masala paste and cook until the oil starts separating from the masala.
- Chop the tomato and add it to the pan. Keep on stirring until the tomato is cooked.
- Next, add the fried potatoes and the boiled chickpeas along with the leftover water from the pressure cooker.
- Adjust the salt and the lightness of gravy as you desire and before switching off the stove, add the ghee to it. Enjoy it with some fluffy puri.
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